BCCI chief N Srinivasan’s son-in-law and former team principal of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Gurunath Meiyappan and Bollywood actor Vindoo Dara Singh were among the 22 people named as accused in a voluminous charge sheet that the Mumbai Crime Branch sleuths filed in a city court in the IPl betting scam case.
In a 11,609 page charge-sheet filed by the city police in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Uday Padwad, 24 others — including Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf, 15 bookies from Pakistan and two Dubai-based bookies — were named as “wanted” accused in the most popular T20 cricket betting scam that shook the cricketing world in May this year.
Meiyappan, whose alleged involvement in the IPl betting scam had earlier compelled his father-in-law Srinivasan to “step aside” as the BCCI president, has been charged under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 212 (harbouring the offender), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention), 465 (forgery), 466 (forgery of record of court or of public register), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), Section 419 and section 490 (breach of contract).
35-year-old Meiyappan, who had been arrested shortly after midnight on May 24 and was released on conditional bail on June 4, has also been charged under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, Sections 4 and 5 of the Gambling Act and Section 130 of the Bombay Police Act, which is enabling provision that facilitates the investigators to nail the former CSK team principal for allegedly using “unfair” means in a game or betting.
The case that the Crime Branch sleuths have built against Meiyappan is of compromising confidential information relating to his team (CSK) and indulging in betting through actor and his close confidant Vindoo Dara Singh. The charge sheet dwells on the taped conversations between actor Vindoo Dara Singh and Meiyappan and also between Vindoo and Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf.
Soon after his son-in-law was chargesheeted in the betting scam, Srinivasan distanced himself from Meiyappan, saying: “law will take its own course. Mr Meiyappan has already been suspended. So I have nothing further to add on that.” When media persons buttonholed him for a comment in Chennai, Srinivasan said: “I have not seen the charge sheet. I will be asking the secretary of the BCCI to take appropriate legal advice, if he finds it necessary. … Why should I step asideIJ I am not disqualified. Neither can you push me out…. I have already made it clear. If Meiyappan has done something right or wrong, he will face the law. The law will take its own course”.
A defiant Srinivasan indicated that he would re-contest the BCCI presidential polls to be held during the cricket board’s Annual General Meeting to be held in Chennai on September 29.
“I will chair the meeting as president and in spite of what you (the media) feel, I may get elected,” the “out-of-exile” BCCI chief said.Talking to media persons here in the evening, Mumbai’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy said: “We have charge-sheeted 22 arrested accused.. In addition, we have named 24 as wanted accused. These include bookies based in Pakistan and UAE and one umpire who is a Pakistani national”.
Apart from Meiyappan, others who have been named in the chargesheet as accused include bookies Ramesh Vyas, Ashok Vyas, Pandurang Kadam and Shobhan Mehta alias Shobhan Kalachowkie,
According to Roy, there are 205 persons have been cited as “witnesses” in the chargesheet. The places that the crime branch police visited during the probe included: Jaipur, Sujangarh, Kokha, Delhi, Bhatinda, Goa, Chennai and Pune.
“We have taken 12 voice samples and examined a number of CCTV footages. The total seizures in the investigations include: 150 cell phones. 5 laptops. 3 I-pods. 40 SIM cards with forged documents. books of account of betting and a total cash 1.29 crore”.
According to charge-sheet, Meiyappan was in constant touch with Vindoo. In One of the taped conversations, Meiyappan on May 12 allegedly told Vindoo ahead of a match between Rajasthan Royals and CSK: “My team is going to make between 130 and 140 runs”. He asked Vindoo to bet against his own team (CSK) and his team lost.
“Meiyappan knew the upper limit that his team was going to make. Vindoo passed on the info given to by Meiyappan to other bookies. There are various instances where he gave n information about team strategy and composition to Vindoo,” a senior investigating officer said.
On the umpire Asad Rauf’s alleged involvement in the IPl scam, “Clause 4.2 of Code of conduct says that umpires cannot place bets. Rauf placed bets through Vindoo. throughout the tournament and passed on info on pitch conditions etc to Vindoo . On May 15 ahead of a match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals, Rauf told Vindoo: “Aaj zindagi ki haar jeet kar lo mumbai par” Rauf ws standing in that match as umpire. Mumbai won. Perhaps the umpiring decisions in that match need to be looked at,” an investigating officer said.
Vindoo was arrested on May 21 for his alleged links with bookies involved in the IPl spot-fixing scam. Ever since his arrest, Vindoo proved gold mine for the police in terms of information.
Following a revelation by Vindoo that he was constant with the BCCI chief’s son-in-law and that the latter was placing bets on IPl T20 matches through him, the police arrested Meiyappan shortly before midnight on May 24.
During the joint custodial interrogation of Vindoo and Meiyappan, it has come to light that the latter was passing on CSK’s team strategy and game-related information to the Bollywood actor who would in turn share the same with bookies.
Among other things, Meiyappan admitted to the police that he used to place heavy bets through Vindoo.On his part, Vindoo told the police that Meiyappan had placed heavy bets during the IPl season and lost to the tune of Rs 1 crore and also revealed to the police that the BCCI chief’s son-in-law was in touch with controversial Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf.
Following Vindoo’s revelations, Pakistani umpire Rauf came under the scanner of the Mumbai police and was subsequently withdrawn by the ICC from the Champions Trophy scheduled to be played in the United Kingdom from June 6 to 23.